question of the day: Did you watch any of the Chilean mine rescue, and did you find it riveting?

Now that all the trapped Chilean miners and the rescuers who went down to help with their return to the surface have made it out alive and well, the general consensus seems to be that the rescue, televised around the world virtually nonstop for 24 hours, was riveting TV. From USA Today:

It was like a moon landing or the Super Bowl or the most gripping reality TV show you've ever seen. The rescue of 33 miners from what had seemed like their tomb below the Chilean desert was the culmination of a mythic tale of death and resurrection that briefly unified the world in awed delight.

After 69 days — longer than some real-life reality TV shows — viewers were transfixed by a rolling climax of happy reunions.

In an age accustomed to made-for-cable TV stories, "this was another level," says Rich Hanley, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. "You didn't need to speak English or Spanish to understand what you were seeing."